Yandex’s browser, maps, search, cloud storage and store
with 100,000 applications will be the default options on two
phones, made by Huawei Technologies Co. and ZAO Explay, that
will go on sale in Russia in March, Alexander Zverev, head of
mobile ecosystems at Moscow-based Yandex, said in an interview.

The company is seeking to maintain its market share in
Russia as local users switch to surfing the Web on mobile
devices, with Android smartphones dominating. Yandex is joining
other companies that are building their own services on top of
Google’s Android, including Amazon.com Inc. and Nokia Oyj.

“When smartphone manufacturers use the Android platform,
they normally have to stick to Google’s services ranging from
search to application store,” Zverev said. “We are offering a
full-fledged alternative here, and we are among a few companies
in the world capable of doing this.”

Yandex had 62 percent of the Russian search market in
January compared with Google’s 27 percent, according to Moscow-based researcher LiveInternet.ru. Yandex also says it had at
least 52 percent market share of searches on Android phones in
Russia.

“We’d like to boost our market share on Android phones and
benefit from growing mobile advertising,” Zverev said. Yandex
also has over 90 percent market share on smartphones running
Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone system in Russia, he said.

Barcelona Congress

Russian sales of Android phones doubled last year to 14.1
million units, or almost 80 percent of the country’s smartphone
market, according to research firm IDC. Explay and Huawei sold
828,000 and 212,000 smartphones respectively, accounting for 5.9
percent of the total market, IDC data shows.

Shares of Yandex rose 2.3 percent to $41.21 in New York
yesterday. The stock has declined 4.5 percent this year after
doubling in 2013.

The company plans to showcase its mobile services at the
Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona. Later this year,
it plans to have its services pre-installed on Android tablets
in Russia, Yandex executives told reporters in Moscow today.

Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, uses its own
services, such as its app store, in its Kindle devices, which
run on a version of Android. Nokia, whose mobile-phone unit is
set to become part of Microsoft Corp., plans to introduce
Android smartphones that have access to Nokia’s services
including its app store, people familiar with the matter said
this month.